ALBANY -- A telecommunications executive whose various companies paid former Sen. Joseph L. Bruno $468,000 for consulting work testified Friday that their financial relationship began in 1993 when Bruno said he needed ''more income.''

Leonard J. Fassler, 78, who has known Bruno since the early 1970s, spent more than five hours on the witness stand answering questions about his companies' efforts to win state contracts, his payments to Bruno over a period of years and the lack of written work product the senator produced for his income.

Prosecutors allege Fassler's payments to Bruno amounted to no more than cash gifts, that the dealings were hidden from the Senate ethics panel and the public, and that Bruno's public duties were enmeshed with his private business dealings. Also, some of Fassler's companies did business with New York state, or, with companies that had interests before the Legislature.

In one instance, Bruno was instrumental in setting up a February 1995 meeting with Gov. George Pataki and a consortium, including IBM, that was vying for a state education contract with a Fassler company, AmeriData. In the letter, Bruno did not disclose he was being paid $4,000 a month at that time as a consultant for AmeriData, and he did not mention AmeriData was involved.

Bruno used his official Senate letterhead to write the letter after a draft had been faxed to his Senate chamber by Joseph Magno, an AmeriData employee and Bruno business partner. The letter to Pataki requested a meeting ''to discuss a potential partnership between IBM and the state.''

A year earlier, Bruno wrote a letter to Fassler requesting his $48,000-a-year consultant salary be augmented with stock options, as their contract allowed. Bruno cited his success working with Magno, and for Fassler, to secure business entres with entities such as Off-Track Betting and Hudson Valley Community College, a state institution.

Bruno was paid more than $4,000 a month over a period of a decade from a series of companies owned, founded or chaired by Fassler, including Sage Alerting Systems, Sage Equities, Interaliant and VyTek Wireless Systems. Vytek later vied for a piece of the state's $2 billion wireless network contract at a time when Bruno was on the payroll.

In a run-up to that effort Bruno hosted a meeting at his Senate offices with the businesses seeking the wireless contract, including VyTek, Motorola and IBM. The meeting took place in April 2002 and, according to Fassler, Bruno did not disclose at the meeting he was working for VyTek. At that time Bruno was being paid $3,000 a month by VyTek, records show.

Fassler testified that he regularly met with Bruno at his Senate offices. He also faxed private business documents to Bruno's Senate chambers and regularly contacted Bruno through his Senate aides, including Pat Stackrow.

''Typically, she was very good at getting tickets at Saratoga Race Course,'' Fassler said of Stackrow.

Assistant U.S. Attorney William C. Pericak pressed Fassler about whether Bruno obtained clearance from a state ethics panel. The issue was raised when the pair outlined their consulting deal in a 1993 letter signed by Fassler.

Citing Bruno's Senate post the letter stated: ''We also recognize that ethical considerations dictate that you should not represent us before any state agency.''

''He told me that he has clearance," Fassler said. "I would not have signed that letter without that."

There's no showing Bruno obtained a review from the ethics panel, but Fassler defended the deal.

''He was an important consultant to me,'' he said. ''He helped me, in my opinion, to be a better executive.''

Pericak also asked Fassler about a 1997 stock deal in which Bruno purchased shares of a trucking software company, RouteMaster, on Fassler's advice. Fassler said Bruno didn't have the cash to buy the stock so his company, Sage Equities, issued Bruno a $15,000 check for consulting work. The jury was shown a handwritten in which Fassler instructed Bruno to send an invoice to justify the payment.

Bruno sent an invoice under his home-based "Business Consultants" header to Sage Equities stating he performed ''marketing, management, organization and conferences.''

''I thought this would be a company Sen. Bruno might be interested in,'' Fassler said of the investment. ''I said: 'I'll just give you a consulting fee of $15,000.'''

Under cross-examination, Fassler said his payments to Bruno were for intangibles that he learned from being around a man with ''unusual vision'' and ''unusual energy.''

''I thought he was a leader,'' Fassler said.

''Do you think in your head that there was anything that was a sham about this arrangement?'' asked Bruno's attorney, Abbe D. Lowell.

''No,'' Fassler answered, later adding: ''Were it not for the corporation I was working for I could have done it with a handshake.''

Brendan J. Lyons can be reached at 454-5547 or by e-mail at blyons@timesunion.com.